English

Variability study of classical supergiant X-ray binary 4U 1907+09 using NuSTAR

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-06-16 v3

Abstract

We investigate the X-ray variability of the supergiant X-ray binary 4U 1907+09 using the new NuSTAR observation of 2024. The source had a relatively stable flux level during previous NuSTAR observations, but the flux varied significantly during the current one. The light curve exhibits dips (off-state) and flares (on-state). The phase-coherent timing analysis during the on-state yields a pulse period of 443.99(4) s443.99(4)~\mathrm{s}, showing the pulsar's continued spin-down. The pulse profiles show an asymmetric double-peaked structure with a phase separation of 0.47 between the two peaks. A cyclotron resonance scattering feature (CRSF) is also detected at 17.6 keV\sim 17.6~\mathrm{keV}, along with its harmonic at 38 keV\sim 38~\mathrm{keV}, persisting across all flux states. Flux-resolved spectroscopy reveals that the CRSF remains constant despite a 25-fold change in flux. The spectral parameters like photon index and e-fold energy are out of phase with the pulse shape, whereas cutoff energy is in phase with the pulse shape. The source's luminosity during the on-state is 2.85×1035 erg s12.85 \times 10^{35}~\mathrm{erg~s^{-1}}, consistent with a "pencil" beam radiation pattern expected at this flux level from a collisionless gas-mediated shock. These results offer further insights into the accretion dynamics and magnetic field geometry of this system.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.02791,
  title  = {Variability study of classical supergiant X-ray binary 4U 1907+09 using NuSTAR},
  author = {Raj Kumar and Sayantan Bhattacharya and Sudip Bhattacharyya and Subir Bhattacharyya},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.02791},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

12 pages, 8 figures, Published in Journal of High Energy Astrophysics

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:45:38.199Z